Book #22

The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

I had low expectations for this book, as I am not a huge fan of time travel-based fantasy/scifi. However this book sucked me in to a fun medieval times/early 90s based adventure. I was cracking up this book’s view of the future–where we can travel through time but still use beepers and landlines–and I loved the realistic look at just how much medieval life would have sucked. There was no romanticization of knights in shining armor and yadda yadda, just the truth of how cold, rough and deadly it was then even for the wealthy. There is also no romance-romance to this story either, and it was great to have a break from fantasies/sci-fi epics where everyone has to be falling in love the entire time. The overall book is a good adventure with a mix of light and dark elements, making it a simple–but-not-too-simple summer read. If you’d like a surprisingly engaging novel about time travel and epidemics, I say go for it.